Late in the year 2019 and before the arrival of the disruption to life in most countries with the Covid 19 Pandemic early in 2020, a small group of our Marsden Road church members had been involved in a study of a book called “John Wesley for the 21st Century” by John O. Gooch. The Rev. John was asked if the Marsden Road Congregation could hold a series of services and further studies, a family tea and other “old fashioned traditional” events to remind us of the importance of community and spirituality of people who claim to live as Christians. This was all planned for August 2020 as “Wesley Weeks” and I suppose you could say that there was a yearning for the Wesley way of the old Methodist Churches and perhaps a longing and a social need for a new Revival.
Despite the strict health rules and the constraints about meetings and gatherings as measures to keep people in Australia as safe as possible, it can be said that, at Marsden Road Church we are all living with these constraints as well as possible. So we are proceeding with the “Wesley Weeks” plans with a few necessary changes. The Rev. John is leading five more weekly studies for those who are able to attend via “Zoom” and he will be presenting specially focused sermons about John Wesley and some of his social work, causes and beliefs. On Sunday the 2nd August the Rev. John’s sermon focused on the life and work of the Rev. John Wesley and his brother Charles, with special reference to John’s particular interest in science, which was the topic of the study via Zoom on the previous Wednesday evening. In this sermon, the Rev. John wrote; “An insatiable reader, Wesley read scientific works throughout his life, often from the back of his horse.” … “From his own reading and the advice of others, he developed short lists of scientific works for his correspondents, schools, and lay preachers. These collections included older works by John Ray, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards as well as current works by Benjamin Franklin, Charles Bonnet, John Hutchinson, and Oliver Goldsmith. Wesley followed the debates that swirled around the various interpretations of Newton's ideas.”
As
usual the sermons are available in full on the Marsden Road Church website each
week, so you can read them there. There
is also a wealth of information on the internet in the form of countless history
articles and many excellent YouTube videos, so I am wondering what path can we
follow for the weekly blogs?
John
Wesley certainly spoke up and recorded his views clearly in all his writings
and 40,000 sermons which he is said to have preached - and his brother Charles
certainly gave us wonderful hymns to sing in praise of God. I wonder who among us doesn’t take a deep breath
and approach a Charles Wesley hymn with enthusiasm and a degree of
thoughtfulness?
Having
had only one attempt to ride a horse and having to retreat to have a long soak
in a hot bath because I could barely walk; I certainly admire John Wesley’s
determination and strength when I read that in all he travelled on horseback
for about 400,000 kilometres and used the time often to study and read. Today’s piece of trivia is the note I saw in
one article, that said John Wesley had “Ridden
his horse to the moon.”
I
became interested in the Wesley family as a whole many years ago now, when I
became deeply involved in family history and I read notes written by ancestors
who had known my maternal GGG grandfather the Rev. John Mayor personally. I was fascinated to learn that the Methodist
Church began in the heart of the Anglican Church and that some of my ancestors,
including the father of the Rev. John Mayor were buried in the non-conformist
Bunhill Fields Cemetery in London with the likes of Susanna Wesley, the mother
of John and Charles Wesley and many of the early Methodist ministers and
followers.
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| A young follower of John Wesley - Rev John Mayor of Shawbury |
The
Rev. John Mayor entered Worcester College, Oxford in 1774 and was ordained
Deacon there in 1778. He began his
ministry at Shawbury in Shropshire in June 1781 after what seems to have been a
period of unrest and youthful enthusiasm - perhaps in an area where the
“Methodist” Anglicans were not as well received. He wrote that he was ordained as a Priest in
September 1779 “Where I had some blessed
seals to my ministry and violent opposition which ended in my quitting the
curacy in a years time, Michaelmas 1780.” It has been written by his family that the Rev.
John Mayor was a great preacher and he was one of John Wesley's well known
adherents and he became a leader in the Nonconformist Revival. His niece wrote of him; “He was stirring up the Shrewsbury neighbourhood when Wesley was busy
in Devon.” In his will there is a
bequest to his son of “my Psalter”
and another book which were given to him by John Newton. I feel this and some other more definite
clues, support the stories of his long friendships and involvement with people
who had been great workers and advocates for the “Wesley’s Revival”.
The
World Book Encyclopaedia records; “Methodism originated as a movement with
groups of students at Oxford University in the late 1720's. They helped each other to be disciplined and
methodical in their study, spiritual devotions and practical good works.” It has been well recorded that John Wesley and
his brother Charles preached in the open air and the crowds were very large as
they taught their listeners about “personal faith and practical good” and I
believe Oxford University students continued to nurture the future generations
of students to join in the revival. When
John and Charles Wesley realised that they and the few enthusiastic clergy
working with them could not do all the work and provide all the spiritual
support needed; John Wesley began, from 1739 on, to evaluate and approve men who had not been ordained as “local preachers” - and this proved to one of the catalysts for
the growth of Methodism.
Modern
History study for the Leaving Certificate in the 1950’s began with the French
Revolution and ended with the causes of World War 1. I was captivated by all History, but then, I
was fortunate that a wonderful teacher made it into a fascinating worldwide
saga about the ways the “age of
enlightenment” and the “twilight of
princes” evolved; with reason replacing God as an explanation of the
world. With these changed religious and
philosophical thoughts, more popular and nonspiritual art, inventions that led
to innovations in trade, transport and technology and the huge social changes
of the ensuing Industrial Revolution, came the first stirrings of the age of
revolution of which the French Revolution in 1789 was only a part.
The first Industrial Revolution began in Britain after 1750 because the country was prepared financially and already had solid financial institutions like a central bank in place to finance the new factories, and the development of new technologies to work with iron and steam power and other kinds of mass production. The economic strength of Britain was sured-up through high taxes which were also collected from the almost boundless British Empire. In the majority of circumstances, with little regard for the workers - these rapid changes were made to the culture and life of people who had worked on farms and in their homes and were forced to move into new industrial towns and big cities in order to work long hours for low wages and endure poor housing. However, a few mills belonged to benevolent men who provided housing, schools and medical care. The New Lanark Mill even had a school, a church and a Co-operative Store where prices were fair and the workers benefited from any profits. I wonder if the owners knew John Wesley? I am certainly sure they knew God!
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| The Lanark Cotton Mill was founded in 1785 and it is now a World Heritage Site |
The
‘upper classes’ went ahead with the building of big new factories with
expensive machines that could make even bigger fortunes for them as they
exploited the poor British workers and foreign growers of spices, cotton and
rich silk fabrics and every kind of exotic thing from the Empire on which it
was claimed “the sun never sets.”
Is it any wonder that the “lower
classes” were beginning to show dissatisfaction with their miserable lot and there
were rumblings of Revolution in Britain as well as in most of Europe? John Wesley and his Revivalists taught and
encouraged their followers about the love of God, who could bring a better
world for everyone if only everyone would live the Christian life.
There are those who believe that John Wesley and his Methodist Revivalists saved Britain from its own violent revolution by doing their best to bring hope into a seemingly hopeless world by their spiritual and social revival, education of the poor, the provision of food, clothing, fuel, medical help, tools and the basic needs of life in those difficult times. They also clothed and fed prisoners and cared for the aged and helpless in need. At Oxford, John Wesley had studied basic medicine and first aid. So in 1746 he set up the first free medical dispensary for the poor. His passion for helping the poor and needy was lived out by the Wesleys and their followers. John Wesley wrote and “lived” this statement; “We give to God not by giving it to the church, but by giving it to the poor.” He personally helped in many ways and he gave all of his own money from his prolific writing to help the poor; living only on his stipend of ₤28 per year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwjdD_JbOok “John Wesley the Man who saved England.” If you have access to a computer, tablet or
smartphone, and a spare half hour, you might find this YouTube video very
interesting. The speaker is Sydney Adventist
Pastor Gary Kent.
I
have “reflected” for long enough today, so I will have to catch up with the
topic of slavery, that was the focus of the Rev. John’s service on Sunday 9th
August, during the next week.
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